Thirst
by thesuzzIis
Summary: "If you ever loved me the way you say you loved me, then you will give me this one thing." Was this a chance to redeem himself? He would do anything. "Name it." What happens after Caroline finds out Klaus had taken over Tyler's body? One-shot.


**AN:** First fanfiction in a long time, and first EVER for The Vampire Diaries. This is unbeta'd so all the mistakes you might see are my own. Please review!

**Disclaimer**: I own an adorable dachshund, a red-hot crush on Joseph Morgan, but TVD? Not mine. Sadly.

* * *

**Thirst**

* * *

He felt there was not enough brandy in the world to quench this thirst.

This burning, aching, torturous thirst had been birthed from anger he had only barely managed to contain. To think that a slip of a girl –regardless of how taken he was with her- had the gall to stand nose to nose with him as she vehemently insisted her undying loathing for him was a mixture of insult and heartbreak he had never before had the displeasure of experiencing. It was not the choice of words that offended him; he had had worse said to him in the course of a thousand years. It was entirely to do with the one who had spoken.

He downed a first glass of brandy in one gulp and refilled without a second thought. Who did she think she was, calling him names like he was just another high school boy she could dismiss with a wave of her hand? He was an original, and the Original Hybrid at that! He could have snapped her like a twig if he had so desired.

It was only that he had grown to love her so damn much that he hadn't.

He supposed he could blame the witch for that, too. He'd known Caroline was beautiful (and strong, and full of light… God, the things he said when his heart got the better of him). He knew she was kind and loyal, but there were still many facets of her personality that had taken him completely by surprise; during his time as Tyler, he began to seek out the parts of her that she had never shared with him. For example, her wit: how very different her sense of humor was when he was not the target of one of her well-aimed jabs. She was quite intelligent, much more so than she had led him to believe. Her laugh, when not dripping with irony at his failed attempts to woo her, was bell-like, and he made many a joke at his own expense in hopes of being rewarded with its sound. But it was her heart, her gentle heart, that had won him fully at last. Though he had gotten in the habit of saying "I love you" as Tyler, it was not long until he had begun to say it for himself.

_I love you. I love _you_. I _love_ you._

The second glass was empty, and it burned his throat less than the memory of those words did.

A knock on the door came as he reached for the glass bottle again. "Come in," he said without thought, guessing Rebekah or even Kol had figured themselves brave enough to torment their brother in his angst.

Soft, dainty footsteps followed the creaking of the door. He didn't have to look up to see who it was.

"Already come to rail at me some more, love?"

Caroline sighed. "No." She only dared step partway the room, leaving a distance of several feet between them.

He looked up to find her eyes were waiting for him. Habit nearly forced him to her side as the urge to wrap his arms around her bubbled to the surface of his mind, but with a grimace he denied himself the pleasure. It was not his arms that she wanted. Not these arms.

"Well, if you have nothing left to say, I'd appreciate being left alone." He turned his back, reaching to finish the refill her entrance had interrupted.

"I came to apologize for yelling at you," Caroline said finally.

Consider his attention captured. "Really?" She murmured a soft yes. With a smirk, he lifted the now-full glass to his lips. "I'm rather tempted to accept that apology." When he looked at her again, he saw her brow was furrowed. She was displeased and growing frustrated.

"Don't even think for one second that I'm sorry for what I said."

"But you just-"

"I didn't apologize for my words, I apologized for the way I said them," she clarified, taking a deep breath to keep herself from shouting and risk nullifying her point. "It occurred to me that you've probably been yelled at a lot over your very long life, and maybe that's not the best way to get you to hear what I was trying to tell you." She paused, then shrugged. "So, I'm sorry for yelling."

He did not respond, merely tapped his fingers against his glass as he studied her. She held her head higher, meeting his gaze without fear. It was her brave face, the one that always made him reach for her hand when he was Tyler. He made to do so now.

"I also came back because I'm not finished," Caroline stated. His hand remained frozen at his side.

"Well… maybe I am," was his challenge. She shot him an icy look, and he knew he would let her speak.

She dared to take one tentative step forward, then several more. Soon, the gap between them had shrunk, and she was near enough that he could see unshed tears threatened the corners of her long black lashes.

"When I was human, Damon took advantage of me. He used me. He used me for my friendships, for my blood. For…" she looked at her feet, "for other things. When I became a vampire, I remembered everything he had put me through. I was angry. So angry I couldn't see straight. If I could have, I would have killed him… but I couldn't, so I swore to myself I would never let anyone let me feel like that again."

She looked up at him again, holding his gaze for a moment before speaking in a voice so small it made him feel lower than dirt. "You did, Klaus. Whether you want to admit it or not, you took advantage of me just like Damon did. You didn't choose to be in Tyler's body, and I get that, but you know you used him to get to me. You used the one person in the world that I love more than anyone to get close to me. Do you have any idea how dirty that makes me feel? Knowing that it wasn't his lips I was kissing, or his hands I was holding?"

If his heart had a beat, it would have stopped by now. His mouth had gone desert dry, and he had to wet his lips just to form her name. "Caroline." She bristled –physicially bristled like a startled animal- at the sound of him saying her name. "You have to know. Surely you must know." He set the brandy down –he would have let it crashed to the floor if necessary- and grasped her face between his hands. To his surprise, she didn't shy away. "Every time I kissed you, or touch you, or told you I love-"

"-Don't." She stopped him forcefully, eyes hardening. "Don't you dare. You don't get to say that. You don't manipulate people you love."

A soft and sad smile played across his lips. "But it's the truth." She didn't want this truth. He could read it in the way her she crossed her arms, denying his affections. He was still holding her beautiful face tenderly, and he tried his best to get her to look into his eyes so he could prove his earnestness. "Please, love. Please tell me: could you ever find it in your heart to forgive me?"

Caroline sighed, her sweet breath flooding over his face as she did. For a moment, her expression turned wistful, and it gave him hope.

"Maybe one day, in the very, very distant future, I could find a way to forgive you for what you've done to my friends. For what you've done to Elena's family, for the hell you've put me and Tyler through…" Her brow furrowed again –how he hated when her brow furrowed- and she began to shake her head slowly. "But I will never forgive you for this, Klaus. Not in a year, not in a century. I will never be able to forget how betrayed I felt by you."

Betrayal. It was a concept he was only too familiar with, and he hated it.

The thought that Caroline would forever associate it with him made him hate himself.

Before he could utter even the weakest response, she removed his hands from her face and held them with her own. For a moment, he allowed himself to marvel at the way her delicate ivory flesh contrasted against his rough and calloused skin, and how her small palms barely covered the breadth of his own.

"When I tell you this," she began, "I want you to know I mean it. I'm not being cute and I'm not being flirtatious. I'm not baiting you or trying to get you to pursue me. If you ever loved me the way you say you loved me, then you will give me this one thing."

Was this a chance to redeem himself? He would do anything. "Name it."

She paused briefly.

"Let me go. Any feelings you have for me, let them go, too."

Never. He would never be able to let her go, not when he loved and needed her so desperately.

Caroline sensed his hesitation. "You said you loved me," she whispered bitterly.

"I do."

"Then let me go."

_It would be easier for my heart to leave my body_, he thought, but did not say. When he verbalized no answer, she began to back away from him. The distance between them manifested once more as her features grew hardened and unforgiving. She was giving him one last chance to grant her request willingly, to give her what she wanted and thereby prove his feelings for her.

Still he refused.

She nodded curtly, her answer found in his continued silence. "Goodbye, Klaus," she uttered through her teeth, his name passing through her lips with the same hate he had been on the receiving end of earlier. With a blurring wind, she disappeared from sight.

She had been gone only a few minutes when he reached for the alcohol again, foregoing the glass and drinking straight from the bottle. If a tear managed to slip down his cheek, he chalked it up to the pain of this agonizing, heart-wrenching, destructive thirst.

There was not enough brandy or blood in the world to quench this thirst.


End file.
